So they refuse to pass an appropriations bill, threaten not to raise the debt-ceiling by the October 17th deadline, and in effect close the country.
Republican leaders see the annual appropriations process, and the related need to raise the debt ceiling, as giant boulders in the path of tax reform.
"From threats of government shutdown each time an appropriations bill was about to lapse, to the artificial debt ceiling crisis of 2011 that required the Budget Control Act, to the year-end fiscal cliff brinksmanship -- Republicans have time and again pulled budget negotiations out of the Budget Committees in ways that rattled the markets, hurt the economy, and increased uncertainty".
And so, along with Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind)., the congresswoman secured an amendment to the fiscal year 2014 energy-and-water appropriations bill that would prevent the Energy Department from enforcing its energy efficiency standards for ceiling fans and ceiling fan light kits.
With the nation's attention diverted by the drama over the debt ceiling, Republicans in the House of Representatives are loading up an appropriations bill with 39 ways — and counting — to significantly curtail environmental regulation.
Even Republicans serving on the various appropriations committees are saying privately that they cannot live within its ceilings.
Last September Xinmin Evening News, a Shanghai newspaper, described cracks in Chaobei New City's buildings, flooded basements, sagging ceilings and a leaky sewage system.Angry victims of forced appropriations are legion.
If the program is not returned to the five-year farm bill, it will have to be financed through annual appropriations, which puts it at the mercy of the Republicans' usual debt-ceiling stunts and government shutdown threats.
Former chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) laid out a busy schedule Monday night of dealing with the CR, then the budget, then tax reform, then individual appropriations bills, then the infrastructure bill, then another spending bill, and then the debt ceiling.
This month, the House adopted, largely along party lines, an energy appropriations bill that among other things forbids the government from enforcing energy efficiency standards for ceiling fans, light bulbs, refrigerators and freezers.
